5 of the Greatest Staffing Challenges Facing the Home Care Industry in 2023 – and How You Can Solve Them

As the demand for home care services continues to exceed availability, home care providers of all shapes and sizes are reporting that their most pressing challenges in 2023 are directly related to staffing – and that these challenges are impacting their business stability and growth.

In this article, we take a look at five of the most common home care staffing challenges and actions you can take to resolve them. These include:

• Staff shortages
• Quality of candidates
• Payroll processing and staffing costs
• Staff engagement
• Staff retention

1. Staff shortages

The workforce shortage in home care has been a long-standing issue that has now reached crisis proportions. Almost 100% of home care providers say that direct worker shortages are having a negative impact on their business, including limiting their ability to accept new clients.

Despite the best efforts of industry leaders, the gap between the number of clients and families seeking home care services and the availability of caregiver staff to deliver those services is accelerating at an unsustainable rate. 

So, what can you do to overcome this particular staffing challenge?

• Recruit and attract the right caregiver talent

To reach and attract the best candidates from a limited caregiver pool, you must be on top of your game and set yourself apart from the competition.

You’ll need to research your target audience to understand what motivates and engages them best. You can also study your competitors to see what they offer to ensure you’re up to speed. For example, are they prioritizing a great employer brand, competitive pay rates, enticing benefits, opportunities for career development, and so on?

Combining your ideal candidate profile with this information will help you create engaging job posts and effective job descriptions that make an impact, clearly demonstrate what your business has to offer, and help you attract the best, high-quality caregivers to apply. 

In addition, you need to be advertising across multiple channels to reach as much of your target audience as possible. This can include job lead websites, your website and social media platforms, local community groups and events, nursing school partnerships, and internal referral programs.

Investing in an Applicant Management System like Smartcare Software’s ENGAGE Hiring Hub can make this entire process time- and cost-effective. You can share every new job post created across multiple channels at the click of a button. You can also circulate new posts to reach people you know are already interested in working for you, using your existing database to contact former employees, past candidates, and those signed up for your caregiver referral program.

• Guarantee a positive candidate experience

While the number of applicants for each new post may be lower than desired, this doesn’t mean your business can’t find the staff it needs from that smaller pool. You just need to be smart about it!

Many home care providers miss out on great applicants simply because they’re not providing a positive candidate experience – typically due to an inefficient application and/or hiring process. 

The candidate experience you provide is hugely important. It includes every interaction an applicant will have with your home care business before becoming an employee – from viewing your job post, starting the application process, and speaking with your office staff, to attending interviews, completing assessments, and going through your onboarding process. 

Every element of your candidate experience has to be timely, clear, and consistent. To avoid applicants dropping out at any point, you must ensure they feel engaged and excited about the opportunity to work for you and see that you respect and value their time, regardless of the end outcome. 

The easiest and most cost-effective way to achieve this goal is to invest in an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which guarantees a simple, fast, and efficient process – streamlining each step and tracking all applicants on a single platform. 

Using an ATS is not only time- and cost-efficient for your business but also helps you establish clear and consistent communication with every applicant to keep them connected, informed, and fully engaged at every stage of the hiring process. 

A recent study highlighted that over 30% of job seekers in today’s market get hired in under two weeks. If your home care business takes longer than this, then you’re not providing the optimal candidate experience and will miss out on the top available talent.

• Diversify your talent pool

Staff shortages make it increasingly necessary for home care providers to think outside the box and recognize talent in diverse communities. Investing in diversity and inclusion in your workforce can help you attract a fantastic variety of top talent you may have previously overlooked. 

In addition, it offers many other business benefits, including improved performance, a broader range of perspectives, an enhanced employee network, and better client services.

• Invest in technology that allows you to do more with less staff

An alternative strategy to consider for weathering the storm of staff shortages is investing in technology that allows you to do more with your already existing staff!

By streamlining operations and maximizing the capabilities of your existing team – which is significantly cheaper than hiring new staff – systems like Smartcare Software enable you to operate a more efficient and loyal team that can deliver high-quality care even through challenging times.

2. Quality of candidates

Many home care providers report that it’s not only the reduced number of caregiver candidates proving a challenge but also that the quality of candidates is lower than it’s been in years.

To successfully attract and hire top-quality caregivers, you and your team must be 100% clear (and realistic) on your hiring needs and know exactly what you’re looking for. You can then focus all your efforts on finding and hiring only the best-fit candidates, saving you time and money.

Some simple strategies to help you achieve this include:

• Screen candidates early for minimum requirements

While casting a wide net can be necessary when sourcing from a smaller pool of potential candidates, you do need to keep the number of incompatible applications you receive to a minimum. The process of recruiting and hiring new staff is time-consuming and costly enough!

To avoid applicants applying that don’t meet your minimum requirements, make sure your job postings are clear and specific about the role’s requirements. Then, consider pre-screening to narrow down further the top-quality candidates that are a best fit for your posted position.

When listing the skills, qualifications, and experience required for the open role – including certifications, education level, and hard/soft skills – be sure to separate your list into ‘required’ and ‘preferred.’ This will help you avoid missing out on caregiver candidates that would be a perfect fit for your company if just given a little training to level up during their first 30–90 days.

• Respond to applicants quickly and effectively

In today’s highly competitive job market, most candidates apply for multiple jobs simultaneously. So, to avoid missing out on the best-qualified candidates – who will be the most sought-after – you must follow up with them as soon as you receive their application.

The simplest way to achieve this is to invest in an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that automates this step (and other key follow-up communications) to ensure top-quality candidates know their application has been received and where they are in your hiring process. ENGAGE allows you to set up automated communication to every applicant via text or email to guarantee you don’t miss out on top caregiver talent due to a lack of communication.

Timely and consistent communication throughout the hiring process is essential to keep top-talented candidates engaged, create a positive candidate experience, and speed up the time to hire.

• Address the pay gap between home care and other sectors

Of the many factors affecting the number of high-quality caregivers applying for open positions, pay rates and benefits are arguably the most crucial. Expecting highly skilled staff to care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities on minimum wages and with low status is no longer a viable option.

Home care providers that want top-quality caregivers must offer a competitive and fair salary – ideally with on-demand access to earned pay – and a good selection of additional benefits. If you want to secure the best, you have to invest.

• Prioritize ongoing training and development 

An effective way to make up for the lack of available caregivers with the right skills is to close the skills gap through training and development opportunities, including upskilling, reskilling, and mentoring programs.

Skill building is one of the best strategies to close the skill gap in the home care labor market – regardless of your budget. This approach will give your home care business access to the staff and specific skills you need to meet your long-term goals and stay ahead of the competition.

• Set up a caregiver referral program

Using your existing team of caregivers to help find new hires is proven to be one of the best strategies for attracting high-quality, best-fit candidates.

In addition, caregivers that home care providers hire from current employee referrals have a turnover rate that is 25% lower than those found via other recruitment sources. 

Setting up a caregiver referral program can elevate many areas of your business and is one of the most cost-effective ways to boost your pipeline of quality candidates. 

3. Payroll processing and staffing costs

Payroll processing involves many complex procedures, made more challenging by tax laws and compliance rules regularly changing. Add to this mix the fact that caregivers’ timesheets are notoriously complicated – all with different hours worked, multiple pay rates, travel time, overtime, vacation time, sick leave, expenses, etc. – and it’s easy to understand why many home care providers find this so challenging.

Fortunately, this is an easy one to resolve, as investing in smart scheduling and payroll management and processing software, means all the hard work is done for you. For example, Smartcare’s advanced payroll system – designed specifically for home care providers – is integrated into Smarcare’s all-in-one home care platform and can manage your payroll in minutes!

In addition to being accurate, compliant, and time-efficient, the system also provides advanced payroll analytics and reporting tools. These tools give you the insights into staffing costs and payroll trends needed to make important staffing decisions that will support stability and growth.

4. Staff engagement 

Keeping a remote team of caregivers connected and engaged is another staffing challenge that most home care providers face, especially when growing their workforce. 

Promoting a person-centered, inclusive work environment where everyone feels valued and respected is key here. It generates a feeling of belonging and builds trust, actively stimulating engagement and overall job satisfaction.

There are multiple approaches to improving caregiver engagement, including:

• Provide better communication tools 

While building a positive company culture will have a huge effect on staff engagement and job satisfaction, you still need to ensure everyone feels connected and supported on a day-to-day basis. One of the best ways to achieve this – and show that your business genuinely cares about its caregivers and office staff – is through regular, two-way communication via daily texts, emails, weekly check-in calls, monthly meetings, etc.

For larger agencies especially, building strong relationships with caregiver teams and keeping them actively engaged on a daily basis can potentially be a time-consuming and costly affair. However, technology tools can really help with streamlining and organizing all communications, keeping your team connected with secure messaging and chat, and maintaining that all-important personal touch so crucial to staff engagement. 

• Pay attention to your caregiver-client matching

Many home care providers have limited time or personnel to dedicate to carefully matching their caregivers and clients. This leaves caregivers having to establish the best relationship they can with the clients and families assigned to them, which can result in disengagement over time.

To avoid this, you can use tech tools to support and accelerate better caregiver-client connections without putting any extra burden on your office staff. 

It’s in your home care business’s best interests to create and maintain long-term, well-matched relationships between clients, families, and caregivers, so it’s worth investing in the right caregiver-client matching tools to guarantee you get it right.

Smartcare’s advanced client-caregiver matching uses exclusive machine learning technology to find the right caregiver for the right client every time, making recommendations for your schedulers to excel in preferred groupings.

• Simplify routine day-to-day tasks 

Routine day-to-day tasks like scheduling, time tracking, and filing care reports can be time-consuming and boring, significantly impacting your employees’ work engagement and satisfaction over time. 

Simplifying many of these mundane processes gives your employees more time to focus on aspects of their job that they enjoy, like engaging with clients/patients and families, upskilling, and mentoring new hires.

Using technology specifically designed for home care allows you to automate many routine admin tasks, simplify care management, and free up your caregivers’ time. This not only increases workflow efficiencies but also optimizes the caregiver experience – promoting higher levels of engagement and motivation.

• Provide ongoing training and upskilling opportunities

Setting up training programs and creating career paths will instantly boost your caregivers’ engagement (and increase retention, too). 

Access to training and career development programs significantly drove caregiver recruitment, engagement, and retention throughout 2022 – and continues to do so in 2023.

It doesn’t have to be expensive for your business either, as you can easily utilize many assets you already have to facilitate upskilling and reskilling, caregiver mentoring programs, and in-house coaching.

• Deliver regular recognition and rewards

Caregiver recognition is fast becoming a growing trend in the battle to engage and retain staff and delivers an excellent return on investment. For continued high staff engagement, be sure to provide outstanding recognition and rewards by:

• Learning your caregivers’ preferences for recognition
• Setting clear performance-based and behavioral goals and expectations
• Giving credit that is timely, specific, and consistent
• Highlighting the impact of contributions, connecting them to the bigger picture
• Creating dedicated spaces for recognition
• Asking for (and acting on) regular feedback from your team
• Measuring metrics to identify where you can refine your approach
• Setting up a formal recognition program

Choosing the right software tools can deliver a time- and cost-effective way to keep your caregivers connected and engaged, keeping track of daily progress and providing automated rewards at crucial milestones. 

Gamification tools, like Smartcare Software’s integrated Caregiver Rewards System, are the perfect addition to any strategies you’re already using to recognize caregivers’ efforts and achievements, reward excellent performance, and boost engagement.

5. Staff retention

Caregiver retention is an ongoing challenge for every home care provider. In an employment market where candidates are in short supply – and, in some cases, of a lower quality than desired – hanging on to your top talent becomes even more critical.

While retention strategy efforts can be costly, not taking action will prove far more expensive to your business in the long run! Not only does the average caregiver currently cost $2,600 to replace, but high staff turnover can also damage your employer brand, lower team morale, and reduce performance levels.

Most of the strategies mentioned above will go a long way to ensuring you keep staff turnover to a minimum. In addition, consider the following solutions to further boost your retention efforts:

• Invest in delivering the best caregiver experience

The caregiver experience is essential for home care providers to master if they want to attract and retain top talent. 

Everything your team experiences in their day-to-day work for your company will have an effect on their levels of efficiency, engagement, satisfaction, and retention. This includes the software your business uses to provide their point-of-care mobile app which houses all communication, scheduling, care management, training opportunities, and much more.

Investing in the right technology and data-driven solutions to modernize operations and meet the needs of your caregivers, will greatly support your efforts and deliver the most cost-effective, time-efficient results. 

• Navigate multi-generational workforce needs

While there are many common areas affecting retention across all generations in the workforce – including fair pay, training opportunities, and flexible scheduling – there are also subtle differences that are important to identify.

For example, a recent Gallup report highlighted that younger workers need more frequent recognition than baby boomers or Gen X. 

Regularly asking for feedback through surveys, forums, performance reviews, etc., will help you to identify and then navigate these multi-generational workforce needs, keeping your retention levels nice and high right across the board.

• Measure and monitor job satisfaction

It’s important to be proactive and regularly measure and monitor caregiver job satisfaction. This can be achieved by directly asking for feedback, and also by looking at the quantitative data.

Smart home care providers are investing in caregiver retention tools that include an option to receive real-time feedback from their caregivers. This not only provides tools to keep caregivers engaged, connected, and motivated but also offers 360-degree satisfaction tracking to monitor both client and caregiver satisfaction – giving regular insights into caregivers’ satisfaction levels at all touch points. 

In addition, home care software like Smartcare, that provides a KPI dashboard, makes it easy to capture, view, and utilize data insights to identify where your retention strategies are working and any areas in need of improvement.

Both approaches will help you to effectively measure and monitor staff satisfaction levels and make better business decisions to improve your caregiver experience and boost retention.

• Prioritize workforce well-being

Supporting your caregiver teams in having a healthy work-life balance enhances the caregiver experience and boosts retention. Workforce well-being should incorporate physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellness.

Approaches can include:

• Offering flexible scheduling that’s more adaptable to your caregivers’ personal circumstances.
• Supplying all tools/equipment needed to do their job safely and efficiently.
• Regularly checking in with your staff to identify anyone who is struggling and needing additional support.
• Conducting regular surveys to identify what your caregivers need to avoid chronic stress and prevent burnout.
• Providing support networks, including mentorships.
• Making time management training available.
• Facilitating team-building events and social activities to enhance connections.
• Investing in technology to simplify care management and recording.

You can also consider setting up a workplace wellness program, which may include paid vacation, child care support, discounts for local gyms/health clinics/spas, health insurance, access to a counselor, and so on. 

How Smartcare Software can help

While more funding and policy changes are clearly needed to address ongoing home care staffing challenges, there are actions that home care providers can start taking now to minimize these challenges and become an employer of choice.

By investing in technology, like Smartcare’s complete home care platform, providers have access to everything they need to improve caregiver hiring, simplify care management, build strong relationships with their caregivers to keep them connected, motivated, and engaged, and achieve up to 3x improved caregiver retention over the industry average.

We hope the ideas suggested in this article have provided some food for thought and inspired you to take action on any staffing challenges your business is currently facing.

If you’d like to know more about the Smartcare Software tools mentioned throughout this article – which can solve 99% of the current home care staffing challenges – please call our dedicated team or request a demo today.

We are here and ready to help your home care business thrive.